{"id":8326,"date":"2026-08-04T11:10:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T15:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=8326"},"modified":"2026-08-04T11:10:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T15:10:48","slug":"ice-out-huron-students-walk-out-to-protest-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=8326","title":{"rendered":"\u201cICE out\u201d: Huron students walk out to protest ICE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1st Place, Breaking News Coverage<\/strong>
2025-26, Division 1, News Writing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Lakshya Jaiganesh, Amelia Bai &<\/strong> Ishaan Kamat<\/strong>
The Emery
Ann Arbor Huron HS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Feb. 4, an estimated 400 Huron High School students gathered to protest the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), holding handmade signs and chanting as their voices reverberated throughout the arch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The walkout began at 12:16 p.m., when co-organizers senior Salem Dinh and junior Khadijah Mbengue addressed the crowd, explaining the walkout and the purpose of the protest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our responsibility to advocate as well, especially as students,\u201d Dinh said. \u201cIt\u2019s within our constitutional rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior Angelys Ramirez, the daughter of Honduran immigrants, spoke about her parents\u2019 journey to the United States and the sacrifices they made to provide opportunities for their children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey only had their dreams,\u201d Ramirez said. \u201cThey came to this country to pursue [their dreams], to find themselves and to start a family. They\u2019ve given me and my siblings amazing opportunities.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ICE is a federal agency responsible for enforcing immigration laws, including detention and deportation. In recent years, expanded enforcement efforts and increased local activity have raised concerns with immigrant communities, especially in Washtenaw County<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[My parents] work hard every single day,\u201d Ramirez said. \u201cIt\u2019s so scary to think that one day that [ICE] could come and [the] whole entire life that they\u2019ve built up from nothing will be taken away from them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the walkout centered on personal experiences shared by student speakers. Dinh described the fear that accompanies many students with immigrant families. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery single day when I go home, I\u2019m scared that I\u2019m gonna get a call that my parents have been detained,\u201d Dinh said. \u201cBecause even though they have their papers and they have their citizenship, the administration has shown very clearly that that does not matter.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event continued on, with spoken poetry given by student organizers and speakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe [are seeing] so many [repeats] of things that happened in the past,\u201d Mbengue said. \u201cThey keep happening because people aren\u2019t looking at what happened and [aren\u2019t] doing something differently.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organizers hoped that the walkout would increase awareness around the issue and bring the community together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many people here who do truly care and who do want to fight [ICE],\u201d sophomore Lorena Moore said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s so powerful to see the huge crowd that came out. I think that we should fight for something that we believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Near the end of the walkout, students held a moment of silence as organizers listed the names of people who were killed by ICE. They encouraged everyone to hold up phone flashlights and candles in order to honor and pay respect to the victims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are the future,\u201d Ramirez said. \u201cWe are so powerful on our own, but we are also more powerful together. And truly, I think unity is one of the most important things that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1st Place, Breaking News Coverage2025-26, Division 1, News Writing By Lakshya Jaiganesh, Amelia Bai & Ishaan KamatThe EmeryAnn Arbor Huron HS On Feb. 4, an estimated 400 Huron High School students gathered to protest the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), holding handmade signs and chanting as their voices reverberated throughout the arch.  The walkout […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[49,4],"tags":[224,20],"class_list":["post-8326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-breakingnewscoverage","category-nw","tag-2025-26","tag-division1","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Mikayla Mazza","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=14"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-2ai","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}